You can’t ask me that: Why ‘Have you been?’ isn’t the only toilet-related question we should be asking

Looking after children involves the answering and asking of many questions. Anyone who has ever spent time with a three-year-old has answered the question “why?” to the point of “because I said so”. They have also almost certainly in turn had to ask that old classic: “Have you been?”

As in, “Have you been to the toilet?”, ordinarily asked at screeching pitch just as you’re about to head out the door to catch a bus, train, boat or plane with moments to spare. Something I wish I’d known, before I agreed to babysit my nephews when they were small, is that if you ask this question of an under-five that you’ve…